In the small Saskatchewan community of Kinistino, a woman's name was drawn from 13,000 entries to receive a transformed 2008 Mini Cooper — cosmic purple, fully upgraded, and surrounded by a summer's worth of leisure goods. Beach Radio's three-month Summer Free Ride contest, winding through 77 community stops and supported by more than twenty local businesses, reminds us that the oldest forms of communal generosity — pooled resources, shared celebration, a prize that belongs to the neighbourhood as much as the winner — still carry genuine weight in the places that practice them.
Kinistino woman wins customized 2008 Mini Cooper in Beach Radio contest
The perfect sporty, summer car to cruise around in
Mark
Why does a radio contest for a car matter enough to write about?
Mimi
Because it shows how a community still organizes itself around shared moments. Thirteen thousand people entered. That's not nothing in a region this size. It means the radio station still reaches people, and people still believe in the possibility of winning something real.
Mark
But it's just a car giveaway. Doesn't every radio station do this?
Mimi
They do, but the detail matters here. This one required twenty-plus local businesses to contribute. That's not a radio station running a contest—that's a community deciding together that they want to give something away. The car came from Edmonton, got rebuilt by local shops, got painted and detailed by local hands.
Mark
So it's really a story about local business cooperation?
Mimi
Partly. But it's also about what people want in August. A purple Mini Cooper. A BBQ. A cooler. A paddleboard. These aren't luxury items—they're the things that make summer feel like something worth planning for. The winner's first thought was to drive through her hometown. That tells you what this actually is.
Mark
What does it say that Beach Radio is already planning next year's contest to be bigger?
Mimi
That this worked. That people showed up, entered, talked about it. The radio station saw that and thought: we can do more of this. In a media landscape where radio is supposed to be dying, this is a station finding something that still connects with listeners. It's not complicated, but it's real.
Mark
Is there a risk that making it bigger dilutes what made this year work?
Mimi
Absolutely. The intimacy matters—the 77 stops, the local businesses, the sense that this was built by people you might actually know. Scale it up too much and it becomes generic. But that's a problem for next year.
O Pulso
- A Kinistino woman is processing the kind of win that takes a moment to feel real — a fully refurbished Mini Cooper, a Traeger BBQ, a Yeti cooler, and an inflatable paddleboard, all arriving at once.
- The car itself had a past life as a plain red summer vehicle before local businesses stripped it down and rebuilt it into a cosmic purple showpiece with a new sound system, remote starter, and custom interior.
- Thirteen thousand entries across three months signal that Beach Radio struck something deeper than a giveaway — people wanted to belong to the moment the contest was creating.
- More than twenty local sponsors made the prize possible, turning a radio promotion into a demonstration of what small-market businesses can accomplish when they invest in shared community joy.
- Beach Radio is already planning a larger 2027 edition, suggesting the Summer Free Ride has outgrown its origins and is becoming a fixture on the regional calendar.
In the small Saskatchewan community of Kinistino, a woman's name was drawn from 13,000 entries to receive a transformed 2008 Mini Cooper — cosmic purple, fully upgraded, and surrounded by a summer's worth of leisure goods. Beach Radio's three-month Summer Free Ride contest, winding through 77 community stops and supported by more than twenty local businesses, reminds us that the oldest forms of communal generosity — pooled resources, shared celebration, a prize that belongs to the neighbourhood as much as the winner — still carry genuine weight in the places that practice them.
A Kinistino woman has won a cosmic purple 2008 Mini Cooper through Beach Radio's Summer Free Ride contest — a three-month campaign that collected 13,000 entries and visited 77 local businesses and events across the region. Her first plan after learning she'd won was simple: drive through her hometown that same evening. It's the kind of answer that says everything about how the moment was still settling in.
The car didn't arrive as a prize — it was made into one. Westview Steering & Brake purchased a well-kept red Mini Cooper from an Edmonton owner and handed it over to a network of local contributors who repainted it, upgraded the sound system, installed a remote starter, and fitted it with WeatherTech mats, custom seat covers, and a new windshield. Alongside the car, the winner receives a Traeger BBQ, a $500 meat pack, a Yeti cooler, and an inflatable paddleboard — a prize package assembled with summer clearly in mind.
Jocelyn Bovay of Pattison Media credited the car's personality for the contest's strong response. A sporty, refurbished Mini Cooper, she suggested, is exactly the kind of thing people can picture themselves in — and that imagination drove participation. Beach Radio brought the contest to listeners directly, making 77 stops rather than waiting for the audience to come to them.
More than twenty local sponsors — from collision shops and steering specialists to meat suppliers, co-ops, and insurers — contributed the materials and products that made the full prize possible. That kind of coordinated local investment reflects a community economy where radio still functions as a genuine gathering point.
Beach Radio is already planning the 2027 Summer Free Ride with ambitions to expand it further, while a separate $25K shopping giveaway keeps the station's momentum going in the meantime. The Summer Free Ride works, it seems, because it's concrete, seasonal, and built from the ground up by the people who live there.
A woman from Kinistino is about to take possession of a cosmic purple 2008 Mini Cooper, complete with a black roof, tinted rear windows, and enough upgrades to turn heads on every street in town. She won it through Beach Radio's Summer Free Ride contest, a three-month community campaign that drew 13,000 entries and made 77 stops at local businesses and events across the region.
The car itself has a story before it became a prize. It started as a red Mini Cooper with a white roof, purchased by Westview Steering & Brake from an Edmonton owner who had used it only as a summer vehicle. Despite its 2008 model year, the car arrived in excellent condition with relatively low mileage—a solid foundation for what would become the contest's centerpiece.
The transformation was thorough. Beyond the paint job, the Mini received an upgraded sound system, a remote starter, WeatherTech floor mats, custom seat covers, and a brand new windshield. But the grand prize didn't stop at the car itself. The winner also takes home a Traeger BBQ, a $500 meat pack from a local supplier, a Yeti cooler, and an inflatable paddleboard—a collection of items clearly designed with summer leisure in mind.
When asked about her plans, the winner mentioned the obvious first move: a tour through her hometown tonight. It's the kind of modest, genuine response that suggests she's still processing the win. For a small Saskatchewan community, a fully refurbished vehicle and a summer's worth of entertainment represents real value, the kind of prize that changes how someone spends the next few months.
Jocelyn Bovay, a sales supervisor at Pattison Media, attributed the contest's strong showing to the appeal of the car itself. "It's the perfect sporty, summer car to cruise around in, which I think made it such a hit this year," she said. The numbers back that up: 13,000 entries across three months of community engagement suggests the contest tapped into something people wanted to be part of. The radio station made the rounds—77 stops total—bringing the contest directly to listeners rather than asking them to come to it.
None of this happens without the businesses willing to contribute. Beach Radio acknowledged more than twenty local sponsors, from Westview Steering & Brake and R&W Custom Collision to Parkland Meats, Lake Country Co-op, and Affinity Insurance. Each business that donated time, materials, or products made the prize package possible. That kind of community investment—multiple businesses pooling resources toward a single giveaway—reflects a particular kind of local economy, one where radio stations still matter and where businesses see value in being associated with something that makes people happy.
Beach Radio is already thinking ahead. The 2027 Summer Free Ride contest is in the planning stages, with ideas to make it even bigger than this year's version. For now, the radio station is running a separate $25K Giveaway, offering listeners a chance to win shopping sprees at participating sponsors. But the momentum is clearly building around the Summer Free Ride concept—a contest that works because it's tangible, achievable, and tied to the season when people actually want to get out and enjoy themselves.
Citações Notáveis
Maybe we'll have to go for a little tour through Kinistino tonight— Contest winner, on her first plans for the car
It's the perfect sporty, summer car to cruise around in, which I think made it such a hit this year— Jocelyn Bovay, Pattison Media Retail Sales Supervisor
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